3rd Congress
Livorno, 7-8 March 1992
MOTION TO UNITE THE FdCA AND THE OCL-LIVORNO
Anarchist Communism in Italy over the past twenty years
In the early post-war years, various attempts at anarchist communist groupings such as the Federazione Comunista Libertaria Lombarda (FCLL - Lombardy Libertarian Communist Federation), the Gruppi Anarchici di Azione Proletaria (GAAP - Anarchist Groups for Proletarian Action) and other anarchist communist groups and federations were smothered by the brutal, mafia-like predomination of the "Adunata" wing of the Italian anarchist movement, which at first was strong and composite. In fact, in 1943 the comrades who were interned founded the Federazione Comunista Anarchica Italiana (FCAI - Italian Anarchist Communist Federation), but by 1945 the individualist and synthetist element were predominant and the Federazione Anarchica Italiana (FAI - Italian Anarchist Federation) was founded.
Clashes between the two factions that remained in the FAI came to a head in 1965, with the victory of the synthetists and the self-isolation of the individualists, who left to form the Gruppi di Iniziativa Anarchica (GIA - Groups for Anarchist Initiative).
Debate and an anarchist communist presence were to make a positive return, both within the FAI and outside it, in the form of a plethora of groups that formed on the wave of the workers' and student struggles in the late 1960s.
Attempts at entrism in the FAI by "platformist" groups ended with their expulsion in 1973 (on the wave of a debate that was taking place in France, and with the determining role of the Organizzazione Anarchica Pugliese (OAP - Apulian Anarchist Organization), which later became the Organizzazione Rivoluzionaria Anarchica (ORA - Anarchist Revolutionary Organization), a highly positive phase was entered of debate, of various organizational experiences and structures and numerical growth, which lasted until 1977. A feature of this process which involved hundreds and hundreds of militants was debate on trade union intervention, the need for anarchist presence in the labour and social struggles, as demonstrated by the material produced by the participants in the various National Conventions of Anarchist Workers (CNLA - Convegni Nazionali Lavoratori Anarchici) and, within this structure, the driving force of the Ligurian Organizzazione Comunista Libertaria (OCL - Libertarian Communist Organization). The OCL was closer to the French movement and so imported the habit of preferring the term "libertarian communist" as a name for political organization, both anarchist communist and not, as occurs in France with the synthesis of Marxism and anarchism.
At this stage, the strongest groupings are the Apulian ORA, the Ligurian, Livorno and Lucca OCL groups, the Movimento Anarco-Comunista Bergamasco (MACB - Bergamo Anarcho-Communist Movement) and the Neapolitan Kronstadt Group, along with many other local groups.
1977 changed everything for these groups, with a great many militants distancing themselves from the movement and choosing other paths, but the careful and important work that these Anarchist Communist and Libertarian Communist groups were carrying on in the areas they workerd in did not stop. Bulletins were published in which the debate continued: "Il Libertario", and later "Formazione e Informazione" in Lucca, "Azione Diretta", and later "Comunismo Libertario" in Livorno; the FdCA (Emilia/Lombardy) journal "Bakuninista", which later became "Crescita Politica" after the merger with the ORA; "Informatore di Parte", and later "Erresse" by the Gruppo Comunista Anarchico di Firenze (Florence Anarchist Communist Group), which later became the Unione dei Comunisti Anarchici della Toscana (UCAT - Union of Tuscan Anarchist Communists).
The various groups operating in Liguria under the names OCL and FCLL, but also present within the FAI, continued to be a driving force for study and analysis, documentation, internal education and debate in all areas of the political and economic phase. They were particularly strong in the analysis of the trade unions, producing a great many pamphlets, leaflets, circulars by the Centre for Syndicalist Documentation (Centro di Documentazione Sindacale) and later the publication "Quaderni Sindacali".
The Florence Anarchist Communist Group, which had already been running Crescita Politica as an anarchist communist publishing company for a decade, joined with the Lucca OCL to form the Unione dei Comunisti Anarchici della Toscana (UCAT), thereby paving the way for greater political development and a stronger presence in the region's labour and social struggles, and for the creation of a national anarchist communist organization. During this period it continued to produce "L'Informatore di Parte", which later became "Erresse".
In the 1980s, after a progressive diminution of political and trade union activity by the Ligurian comrades, the UCAT became the centre of debate in these matters, together with the valuable contribution of the Livorno OCL, the comrades from the Emilia region and various comrades spread throughout the country. Thanks to the production of publications such as the pamphlet "I comunisti anarchici e l'organizzazione di massa" and various economic and trade union bulletins, there was a noticeable increase in the anarchist communist movement of debate and of the number of comrades who now believed that it was essential to block the process of union integration, at the time one of the basic elements of destabilization in the workers' movement.
The demonstrations against planned modifications to the system of index-linked wages and the campaign for the referendum on it in 1985 would be the high point of anarchist communist unity in those years. The manifesto against the agreement on index-linked wages was produced by all existing anarchist communist groups: the Coordinamento Comunista Anarchico di Pesaro-Fano (Pesaro-Fano Anarchist Communist Network), the FCLL, the ORA, the Partito Anarchico Italiano (PAI - Italian Anarchist Party), and the UCAT.
Looking closely, it can be seen that this array of anarchist communist groups were in fact both local organizations and organizations with very different ideas on the strategy for building an anarchist communist organization, which would lead to the anarchist communist movement being split for a long time.
From 1984 on, some - like the ORA - would aim towards building an organization of anarchist communist militants united by a shared theory and strategy even though divided geographically and with differing local conditions, without the need to be firmly rooting in their communities (see the exasperated position of the PAI in this regard and the split in the ORA). Then there were those - such as the UCAT together with the Livorno OCL - who instead preferred to aim for the creation of groups of militants firmly-rooted in the class struggle, that could grow together with other local groups through debate on theory and strategies for real intervention.
The two positions were debated over for a long time and managed to come to agreement, leading to the unification of the ORA and the UCAT in 1985 which culminated in the birth of the Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici (FdCA - Federation of Anarchist Communists).
From its inception, the FdCA presented itself as an instrument and a place for debate for all those who recognize themselves as anarchist communists or libertarian communists in Italy, working towards the construction of an anarchist communist political organization made up of militants rooted in the class struggle.
This process has unfortunately been limited to a great extent thanks to the climate in both the political and trade union worlds, which has seen several important regional groups and organizations disappear or shrink dramatically (e.g. in Apulia, Liguria, Lombardy, Campania).
But there have been some positive elements in recent years, such as the syndicalist journal "Comunismo Libertario", produced by the comrades of the OCL in Livorno with the participation of several FdCA members, and the bulletin "Agenzia della FdCA". Both of these have quickly become important to the anarchist communist area in which we have been working for at least twenty years now, which many of us so wish to see develop on a somewhat stronger basis than the fragile base we currently have.
Other important moments in the development of debate and intervention in which FdCA members have participated have been the publication of the magazine "Homo Sapiens - materiali della Sinistra Libertaria" and the annual Anti-Clericalist Meetings that have been taking place in Fano in the Marches region.
The union work carried out by FdCA and OCL members, in both the reformist unions and in the grassroots committees ("cobas") that have been such a feature of recent years, is aimed at developing unity and class consciousness within the worker class and the development of council syndicalism. The most recent congress of the CGIL presented an opportunity to coordinate our forces and in fact a joint statement was made by libertarian and anarchist communist militants who are members of the CGIL, as a contribution to the formation of a real class component within the CGIL.
If we are to move ahead in an efficient manner, we must accept that the only anarchist communists driving ahead this process now are those who have been active over the past two years, participating in the debate that the FdCA has maintained. But by strengthening ourselves through unification with the Livorno OCL and providing ourselves with programmes that are truly achievable, we should be in a better position to be able to grow and, accordingly, to widen the process of growth of the entire class-struggle, libertarian opposition in Italy.
The need for a political organization and its role
This is the situation, articulated and dialectic, in which the political organization carries on its action. The political organization is not the organization of the proletariat in the sense that it does not represent it. It interprets only the will of those militants who share its political line. The aim of the organization is to be able to indicate a clear plan for the liberation of the proletariat, and has nothing to do with the Leninist notion of the party playing a directing role with relation to the class.
The production of theoretical and strategic positions, the development of tactics and a constant and pervasive presence in the class war are political roles that cannot be carried out on an individual, spontaneous basis. We are aware of the fact that while we address ourselves to the proletariat, its current levels of consciousness and class unity are low. We are also aware that the trade union movement (in its widest sense) today provides only limited opportunities for confrontation and debate. What is needed is a point of reference made up of organized militants who are united around precise, common theoretical and strategic ideas; this reference point is the political organization.
The problem today is not one of the unity of leftist parties, nor that of taking upon oneself the task of coordinating everything even half-way radical on the scene today. In the first case, we would only be deluding ourselves, while in the latter we would be behaving opportunistically. In either case we would end up blunting our swords on the conformism of others.
We need to reject and combat occasional political intervention, entirely concentrated on the supposed priorities of the moment, and any intervention that is of an exclusively agitational and unrealistic nature, that does not put forward proposals and derives its ability to exist from an extremely biased analysis of the situation.
Vice versa, we must allow our organization and its members to play an active role, so that they can participate in the class war as militants and not as "comrades".
What type of organization do we need today? We need a political organization that is stable and above all easily identifiable, even if by reason of our numbers it will be quite small.
The role of the organization is not just that of enlightenment; it does not limit itself to simply being there, something that is too easy and too much an end in itself. It must act in real life in order to heighten its role so that the liberation of the proletariat can be better encouraged.
As the system of capitalist production is still based on the exploitation of human labour, the organization speaks above all to the working class, from which it cannot be separated. Agitation within the trade unions therefore has a fundamental role in the organization's work. But this cannot be the only aspect, since the capitalist system, though based on the exploitation of human labour, has numerous other ways to organize its consensus, and the organization must carry out its role in these areas too. The necessary and inevitable class-struggle approach of the organization must, however, be able to deal with a continually-evolving economic and social set-up. The organization must therefore be able to work in those social areas which are not directly linked to the labour movement or to the proletariat.
The task then is to link every area of interest to the more general theme of the class struggle and the unity of the proletariat so that the relationships of capitalist production can be overcome.
Relations with the Italian anarchist movement
While we have no intention to monopolize anarchism, our political and organizational experience is firmly rooted within the anarchist movement. As far as the necessary cooperation with other political forces is concerned, our relations with the Anarchist Movement and in particular with the FAI should be directed towards joint initiatives that make the most of reciprocal affinities so that we can make our positions and programmes better known within the movement and establish the presence of other anarchist communist comrades.
Our contributions to "Umanità Nova" should therefore be more than occasional and become regular. Contributions to "Comunismo Libertario" should also be sought from those areas of the FAI that are closest to our political positions.
By this, we must not end up blurring the differences that exist between us and the other areas of the Italian Anarchist Movement. On the contrary, we must try to ensure that these differences emerge clearly, but without descending into caricature in our polemics.
The Libertarian Left
The libertarian left is the area which is most likely to agree with the positions of the political organization, though remaining outside and distinct from the organization. It includes all the organization's sympathizers, in the widest sense of the term.
The Libertarian Left therefore complements the Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici and its development, and maintains close relations with it.
Though developing from similar premises, the Libertarian Left cannot become a surrogate or develop an autonomous form.
No political component can represent the sum of libertarian presences in society because wherever they exist they develop independently of any organizational process. The Federazione dei Comunisti Anarchici will have to engage in debate with them, but without seeking to absorb them as this is not its historical task.
What will be of most benefit to the political organization are our political initiatives which should help to influence the libertarian area, both through by helping to coordinate it and widen it, and influence its ability to develop a political project that is more articulate and closer to that of the political organization.